2013 kicking off with arts in the Heights

The new year begins in the Heights the way it usually does, with local artwork and galleries showcasing why this neighborhood is the funkiest of them all. (With no slight on any others either real or implied. One thing about funk, there’s always room at the top. It’s like loaves and fishes up here.)

Both artists construct strangely discordant, alternate visual realities by recombining, re-contextualizing, and reimagining the mundane, innocuous sights and structures that clutter everyday life. Using photographic documentation as a starting point, Fernandez culls through the neighborhoods of her home city and reconstitutes bits and pieces of what she finds into colorful, sometimes eerie, often monumental oil paintings of urban domestic settings that are as mysterious as they are whimsical. Like Fernandez, Merrill’s final works are also created using various combinations of hundreds of photographs that are digitally altered to render new and unusual landscapes—both still images and extremely slow-moving videos completely devoid of any human presence—that deftly straddle the line between fact and fiction.

Count me in.

And of course, earlier that day the First Saturday Arts Market, will have its customary first Saturday of the month show at its usual location of 548 West 19th from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. No fewer than 23 artists and artisans will showcase their works for sale.

And really, all 23 of these artists and artisans are deserving of your attention if for no other reason than the sheer courage it takes to get back out there in January, when holiday bills are coming due, and putting their beautiful work back out there for sale. The temperature that day is forecast to top out at about 52 F after morning showers. I, for one, really admire the chutzpah it takes to head out and try to sell your work, your own handmade craft, in weather like that with no guarantee of success. That takes probably more intestinal fortitude than I’ve got, so you can bet I’ll be out there supporting them.

For more information, or to take a look at the work on display, check out this link here.